Washington University in St Louis joined a consortium of investors that provided $130m in series B financing to the commercial space station developer.
Axiom Space, a US-based developer of a commercial space station, secured $130m in a series B round on Tuesday from investors including Washington University in St Louis.
C5 Capital led the round, which also featured TQS Advisors, Declaration Partners, Moelis Dynasty Investments, Washington University in St. Louis, Venture Collective, Aidenlair Capital, Hemisphere Ventures and Starbridge Venture Capital.
Founded in 2016, Axiom Space is building commercial modules to be attached to the International Space Station (ISS), with a view of eventually constructing a fully private station.
The company has an agreement in place with Nasa to supply private modules to the ISS from 2024 and last month revealed a private astronaut crew that will fly to the station no earlier than January 2022.
Axiom’s co-founders are president and CEO Michael Suffredini, who was Nasa’s ISS programme manager from 2005 to 2015, and executive chairman Kam Ghaffarian, whose previous company, Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies, was Nasa’s second-largest engineering services contractor.
The series B funding will allow Axiom to grow its headcount and accelerate the construction of its space station. Rob Meyerson, operating partner at C5 Capital, will join the board of directors.
Starbridge previously invested an undisclosed amount in Axiom in 2018 and the company revealed in its series B announcement that Ghaffarian had provided an unspecified amount of seed capital through his family office IBX. Further details could not be ascertained.
– The feature image is the concept art for a room on Axiom’s space station and is courtesy of Axiom Space.